JACOBIN

MARCH 23. 2025

Canada Is Betting on Mark Carney, Technocrat Extraordinaire

As an election looms, Mark Carney is the face of Canada’s Liberal Party comeback — and the latest figure to stand between the country and Trump-era fallout. He may also be its first casualty.

MARCH 22. 2025

Wells Fargo Is Plotting to Privatize the Post Office

A newly released memo from the banking giant Wells Fargo outlines a predatory scheme to dismantle the USPS: sell off profitable parts, slash union jobs, and raise prices by up to 140 percent.

Labor Must Take a Stand for Free Speech

It is strategically and morally necessary for labor unions to fight Trump’s attacks on freedom of speech, writes painters' union president Jimmy Williams Jr. That means standing up for Mahmoud Khalil.

McCarthysim in the Ivory Tower

Whether the target was communists in the 1950s or pro-Palestine activists today, politicians and administrators have always worked to keep academia in line.

The Momentous Class Struggle of the German Peasants’ War

This year marks the 500th anniversary of the German Peasants’ War, the largest European uprising before the French Revolution, in which peasants seized upon the radical implications of Martin Luther’s theology to challenge a hierarchical social order.

Silencing Rima Hassan

The pending deportation of Columbia activist Mahmoud Khalil has also had echoes in France. Both establishment and far-right politicians are calling for Rima Hassan, a French Palestinian member of the European Parliament, to be stripped of her citizenship.

MARCH 21. 2025

A Marxist Theory of DOGE

Elon Musk is wrecking the government. If he read Marxist state theory, he’d at least understand how it works.

Israel’s Killing Machine Whirs Back Into Motion

Since Tuesday, Israeli forces have killed over 600 Palestinians and wounded more than 10,000 others, and Israeli politicians are crystal clear in their articulation of their plan to complete their ethnic cleansing in Gaza.

How Useful Is “Worker-to-Worker Unionism”?

In his new book, labor scholar Eric Blanc offers illuminating case studies of recent union victories. But it’s not clear that “worker-to-worker unionism” amounts to a widely applicable “emergent model” of unionism that can save the labor movement.

Trump’s Nominated Social Security Head Knows How to Cut

If you’re hoping Social Security will avoid devastating cuts with the confirmation of Donald Trump’s nominee for Social Security Administration head, Frank Bisignano, we have some bad news about his track record.

Rebuilding the Left in one of France’s Poorest Cities

Roubaix used to be home to France’s textile industry — but doesn’t have the same battalions of factory labor as it once did. For France Insoumise, the challenge is to rebuild the Left’s roots in working-class communities.

MARCH 20. 2025

Bernie Is Right: 60% of Americans Live Paycheck to Paycheck

Bernie Sanders says it over and over again: 60% of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Centrist critics swear this is false. Once we sort through the noise, we see Bernie is right on the money.

Rising GDP Lifts Only the Boats of the Wealthy Few

Since the early 1980s, Canada’s economy has expanded significantly, with GDP per capita rising by 70% in real terms. But while the wealthiest Canadians’ incomes have increased fivefold, those of the bottom half have risen just 1.5 times.

In Praise of French Poetic Realism

In the 1930s, the French realist filmmakers found a way to speak to and fight against the rising authoritarianism in their country and the world.